The plan to visit LIGO (Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory) @Livingston started back in August 2023. At that time it was decided to both visit the states Texas and Louisiana in view of the solar eclipse on April 8, 2024. I made contact with the LIGO center and after a couple of emails it was confirmed we could visit the center on friday april 19, 2024 at 2pm.
A great welcome by Mishael Sedas, a PhD who leads the Science Center as Evaluator & Educator. He explained the history of the site and provided details on the LIGO instrument. As we were the only visitors on site, Mishael took the time to answer all of our questions and we got a detailed plant tour. He was impressed that we also visited Virgo in Cascina (see link to my blogpost); beside some scientists he could not recall anybody who visited two gravitational detectors.
A great thx to the Livingston team and Mishael for getting into LIGO.
Each arm of the detector is 4km long.
We visited the control center of the detector which was operational. As from April 10, 2024 they are in operational run 04b.
Selfie with Mishael Sedas
Of course... the Nobel Prize for the detection of gravitational waves.
Th"mirmor" is reflective for the IR laserbeams, but transparant for visual light.
The "old" mirror; the design is different then the one we saw at Virgo.
